Capital Quilters' Exhibition is on next weekend 3-4 October

Good news - we're back at COVID Level 1 (our lowest level) and our quilt show is going ahead next weekend.  

I'm really looking forward to seeing my Glitter quilt hanging, and then getting to take it home again.  Although I finished Glitter back in April 2020, I haven't used it on our bed yet, or shared it on social media.  It was to be my main entry in the QuiltNSW Sydney Quilt Show, but that got pushed back twice, and is now cancelled for 2020.  Our own shown in Wellington has been pushed back once, but we're really hopeful it can go ahead next weekend.  

Strangely enough when I accepted the 3-4 October dates for our postponement, I totally forgot that I had booked another little holiday.  So I won't be there for the setup day on Friday (how convenient!) or Saturday.  Instead I'll be visiting the Taupo Quiltmakers' and Aotearoa Quilters' exhibitions in Taupo on Friday.

It will be nice to see how other guilds run their exhibitions, and to meet other quilters from around New Zealand.  

Here's our new poster for our Capital Quilters exhibition.  If you live in NZ I hope to see you there on Sunday.  I expect to be there most of the day.  We have four great merchants lined up:

Stitchbird Fabrics

Quilters' Lane

Made Marion Crafts

Yarn Therapy. 

I think we're all looking forward to visiting the merchants.  I've certainly had lots of questions about them.  As for the quilts, you can follow Capital Quilters on Instagram or Facebook.  There will be plenty of photos shared there during the weekend.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below:

 

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Is it Summer yet?

 This week I had a little play with English Paper Piecing.  

I've had these gorgeous ice cream prints for a few months now, and I decided I would just start playing around with them and see where it leads me.  I cut and basted some other combinations while I was at it.

  

I don't have a master plan yet, I'm just going to experiment with them.  That's why I chose to do English Paper Piecing rather than hand piecing.  These blocks could be floating around for a while, and they will keep better with the raw edges glue basted down.  

There's lots of pretty fabrics in this range by Melody Millar for Ruby Star Society.  I was never a huge Cotton + Steel fan, but I thought these fabrics were quite different and I could use them in many ways.  

I haven't done much sewing done this week because I went to Queenstown for four nights.  If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you've probably seen too many photos already, but for those who don't, here are a few snaps of Queenstown in late winter / early Spring.  

The Remarkables

Skyline Gondoals

Gibbston Valley winery

Waking up to snow on Cecil Peak

We had a wonderful time in Queenstown.  The town was very quiet because our borders are closed until there is a vaccine, so there were no international tourists.  We are allowed to travel domestically provided we wear masks on public transport including planes.  

I flew in style with my new Octopus tote bag.  

 

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

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Turkish Coffee quilt

This week I've been working on my Turkish Coffee quilt from Quilts in Burano by Kaffe Fassett.  And watching the US Open of course.  It's really weird with no spectators, but I'm getting used to it, and at least it's keeping everyone involved free from COVID.  The French Open (rescheduled to start on 21 September) is going to allow some spectators so that will be interesting.  

There are so many lovely quilts in Quilts in Burano.  Free Spirit Fabrics are running a competition called "Say Yes to Kaffe Collective" and encouraging people to make quilts from Quilts in Burano in different colourways.  All the details are here.  

I'm hoping to enter my Turkish Coffee quilt into the online competition so I'm not going to post any full photos until it's finished.  But here are some progress shots:

It's a great quilt for using up bits and pieces left over from other quilts.  I've used the brown Aboriginal Dots that I used for the background in my Shuttles quilt:

Shuttles 

And some spots from You Spin Me Round:

You Spin Me Round

My local quilt shop didn't have enough of the orange Millefiori so I've added some yellow Fans because it was the closest thing I had.  I think the background blocks are scrappy enough that you won't notice the different fabric - I've tried to spread it around randomly.  It's alway fun watching a new quilt come together.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  Thank you everyone who continues to link up week after week.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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La Passacaglia - a trip down memory lane

 This week I've been reminded about the fun I had making my la Passacaglia quilt.  

Tula Pink did a little video earlier this week about her la Passacaglia quilt, and it got me thinking about mine again.  You can watch Tula's video about her quilt here: 

https://www.facebook.com/tulapink/videos/309154120366478/

  

I still love my quilt, and I use it on our bed sometimes.  I also take it to show other quilters when I get invited to speak at other guilds.  

It wasn't Tula Pink that inspired me to start my quilt, but rather two other quilters that I stumbled across online.  One of them was Sharon of Lilabelle Lane Creations in Australia.  Sharon is a big Tula fan, and she was inspired to make her own la Passacaglia after seeing photos of Tula's la Passacaglia.    

I got to meet Sharon and Willyne Hammerstein in Melbourne, Australia back in 2018.  It was lovely to all meet up at AQC. 

I started planning my la Passacaglia quilt back in late 2014.  I got the Millefiori Quilts book by Willyne Hammerstien for Christmas in 2014, and I immediately launched into it. 

I chose Kaffe Fasset's Millefiori fabric in blue as my inspiration fabric, and from that I chose these fabrics as my starting point.  

As you can see from my finished quilt, I didn't use all of these fabrics, and I introduced plenty of other fabrics.  I just let the colour scheme evolve as I went along.  The most important thing was balance, so if it needed more green or yellow, I added more green or yellow.  

It took just on one year for me to finish English Paper Piecing my quilt top.  I was thrilled when it was all joined up and I could finally hold it up. 

I wanted borders, and fortunately I had seen some wonderful border fabric, so I tracked it down and very carefully applied my borders.  You can read about how I added my borders, and all other aspects of my quilt, on the la Passacaglia tab at the top of my blog.  

While I was making my quilt my mum got interested too, so she made her very own version of la passacaglia.  

It was fun comparing progress when we met up.

Mum's quilt was one of the ones selected to go to Houston for the QuiltMania exhibition.  It hung with 19 other quilts, including Tula Pink's enlarged version.  And then mum's quilt was selected to go on to another exhibition in Nantes, France too!

My quilt wasn't selected to go to Houston, but I was super thrilled when it won the top amateur award at the QuiltNSW Sydney Quilt Show in 2017. I think that award was even better than it going to Houston, because the quilts weren't judged in Houston - they were for exhibition only.  In Sydney I was surrounded by friends, both from NZ and Australia, and I had the most wonderful time with so many people congratulating me and telling me they loved my quilt. 

Thanks to Tula Pink finding Willyne's book and making her la Passacaglia quilt, Millefiori Quilts has become very popular and Willyne has now written four books.  I own them all and have lots of plans for more quilts yet.  

Although Willyne hand pieces all her quilts, you can hand piece or English Paper Piece these designs.  They're all wonderful.  I encourage you to find a book and take a look. 

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter